"Taliban keep grip in Swat Valley; Military says offensive could last for months" by Griff Witte, Washington Post | May 23, 2009
KHWAZAKHELA, Pakistan - The Pakistani army has regained control of key parts of the contested Swat Valley in recent days, but the Taliban has kept its grip on some of the area's largest towns nearly a month into a massive military offensive, army commanders said yesterday during a visit near the front lines.
Speaking at a rudimentary base in the heart of this verdant mountain valley, the commanders acknowledged that regaining full control of Swat will probably take months and involve intense combat with the well-trained, well-funded Taliban militia.
Interesting: Arms Sent by U.S. May Be Falling Into Taliban Hands
Well, that will certainly keep a war going, 'eh, Amurkn?
Better check the Saudis for the $$$$.
And it was only weeks 'till we turned the corner!
Highlighting the difficulty, some militants are simply melting back into the civilian population so they can fight another day, as they have during previous clashes over the past 18 months in Swat. "You cannot distinguish between a Talib and a normal citizen," said Major General Sajjad Ali, who commands troops in the northern part of Swat. "The area is densely populated, and it's very easy for the terrorists to hide."
That's because THEY ARE the CIVILIAN POPULATION!!!!
The battle for control of Swat has tested the Pakistani government's resolve to confront a raging Islamist insurgency that has gripped much of the northwest and threatened to reach into the nation's heartland....
Are they passing our test?!!!
More than 2 million civilians have fled the fighting, and aid groups have warned of a possible humanitarian disaster. The United Nations launched an appeal yesterday for $543 million to aid those displaced by the military operation. Although the offensive has taken a heavy toll on civilians, it has also bolstered hopes in Pakistan and abroad that the government will not allow radical Islamist forces to expand their territory in this nuclear-armed nation of 170 million people.
Booga-booga-boo!
The army reported yesterday that it had killed 17 militants over the previous 24 hours, adding to the total of more than 1,000 that it says have died since the offensive began. The numbers are impossible to verify because it is unsafe for journalists to operate freely in Swat, and most local officials have fled. The army contends that nearly 100 security officers have been killed.
Yesterday evening, there was a fresh reminder that militants in Pakistan can carry out attacks far beyond Swat: An explosion outside a movie theater in Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, killed at least five people and injured dozens. Taliban leaders have warned that such attacks would be carried out in retribution for the army's offensive.
Swat, known as the Switzerland of Asia, was once one of Pakistan's leading tourist destinations. The valley was considered a national treasure and the local population was renowned for its moderation. But inept governance and the growth of radical Islamist groups in the nearby Afghan border region combined to make Swat a haven for militancy in recent years.
Yeah, nothing about the CIA crawling all over the place, but....
"Pakistani troops battle for control; Attack Taliban in Swat Valley" by Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times | May 24, 2009
Pakistani families crowded into a school that is now a makeshift refugee camp in Mardan. Nearly 2 million Pakistanis have been displaced as a result of the military operations against the Taliban and face harsh conditions in the crowded camps. (Paula Bronstein/ Getty Images)
That's what is all about for me, folks. I look at those little faces and Fatima then needs to get busy.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The battle for the critical Swat Valley city of Mingora began yesterday as Pakistani troops waged fierce street combat with Taliban militants and began the most difficult test yet in the monthlong offensive to regain much of northwest Pakistan from insurgents.
Pakistani security forces so far have been able to root out Taliban fighters from regions surrounding the Swat Valley, as well as mountain ridges and towns within the region, where the militants recently won the right to impose Sharia, or Islamic rule. They can't even report that correctly.
They made a deal with the government, they didn't "win" anything!
In Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said 1,095 militants had been killed during the offensive and 29 captured. The death toll could not be verified independently.
Mingora, however, poses a severe challenge for Pakistani troops, who face Taliban fighters deeply embedded in an urban environment and reliant on mines, fortifications, and hidden weapons caches to fend off the offensive. The fight also will be complicated by the presence of as many as 20,000 civilians who remained behind after the rest of the city's population of 375,000 fled.
A heavy civilian toll could wither support for the offensive, which so far has won backing within large segments of the population despite the massive humanitarian crisis created by the exodus of Pakistanis fleeing the fighting. Nearly 2 million Pakistanis have been displaced during the offensive and have sought shelter either in tent camps outside the conflict zone or in the homes of relatives or friends.
It's the same s*** day after day, isn't it?
In announcing the start of the fighting in Mingora, Abbas said soldiers had driven Taliban fighters out of sections of the city and surrounding areas and had discovered three caves that the Taliban used to hide ammunition and rations.
Yup, they are coming from the caves, booga-booga!
Anybody find bin laden's corpse in one?
"The clearance of Mingora has commenced," Abbas said. "The pace of the operation will be painfully slow. So keep patient. But the operation has started and, God willing, we are going to take it to the logical conclusion."
That's chilling terminology!
Abbas said that elsewhere in Swat, security forces continued to retake Taliban strongholds. Pakistani troops have secured the town of Matta, where an extensive network of Taliban tunnels was found, and have begun to push Taliban fighters out of the Swat Valley town of Peochar. Taliban militants have been fleeing the Peochar area in small groups, Abbas said.
Oooooooh, tunnels and caves!
Authorities largely have barred journalists from Swat, making it difficult to verify the military's statements about the offensive.
But the MSM still reports it as fact for three-quarters of an article.
And if neighboring Afghanistan is any guide, Taliban fighters often have retreated in the face of army campaigns, only to return, or create new strongholds elsewhere.
It remains to be seen whether the gains made by Pakistani troops in Swat and surrounding regions lead to an expansion of the offensive against Taliban militants in the country's volatile tribal areas, along the border with Afghanistan.Yeah, right, they don't know!
They have already been talking about it, and now they are going to do it!
--more--"
"Pakistan clears way for ex-official; Court rules Sharif can seek office" by Griff Witte, Washington Post | May 27, 2009
Pakistani aid workers handed out bread yesterday in a camp outside of Peshawar that houses tens of thousands of people who have fled fighting between the government and the Taliban. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Human Rights Watch warned yesterday that unless the government relaxes a curfew and allows food, water, and medicine into the valley, there will be a "humanitarian catastrophe."
But Major General Athar Abbas, a military spokesman, said it would not be possible to pause the offensive. "Lifting the curfew would mean letting the operational situation slip out of hand," he said. The government said that instead it was planning an air drop of supplies to trapped residents.
Abbas insisted that the government has the Taliban fighters on the defensive, although that was impossible to verify because access to Swat is severely limited. "They're in disarray and finding ways to sneak out," he said.
Meanwhile, the army attacked Taliban positions in another of the group's northwestern strongholds, the tribal region of South Waziristan, which is home to top Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. Several militants were killed, according to residents, and the attack fueled speculation that the army is preparing to enter that area....
Told ya!
Btw, if they are going after Mehsud they are going after ANOTHER DEAD ASSET like bin Laden!
Are WE CLEAR on the LIES and PROPAGANDA and WHO is shoveling them?
--more--"
And LIKE CLOCKWORK!
"Blast levels Pakistani police building; Dozens die, facades crumble" by Associated Press | May 27, 2009
LAHORE, Pakistan - A suicide car bomber targeted buildings housing police and intelligence agency offices in eastern Pakistan this morning, killing at least 30 and wounding more than 100 in one of the deadliest such blasts in the country this year, officials said.
The attack, which was followed by gunfire, was the third major strike in the city of Lahore in recent months, and it came amid worries of retaliation from Taliban militants facing a major Pakistani military offensive in the northwest. Lahore is a major cultural metropolis near India, and assaults there have heightened fears that militancy in Pakistan is spreading well beyond the northwest region bordering Afghanistan.
The blast demolished the police building and tore the facades off several buildings in Lahore's main business district, including that housing the country's main intelligence agency. The explosion occurred when a car smashed through the barrier of the police service building, Sajjad Bhutta, the district coordination officer, said in Lahore.
"The intensity of the blast was severe and gunfire was also heard," Mohammad Asif Mesam, a spokesman for Edhi Foundation, which runs the biggest ambulance service, told Bloomberg News by telephone. The police building was razed to the ground, Mesam said. An adjacent office of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency was also heavily damaged. Fayyaz Ranjha, a senior health official, told state-run Pakistan Television that the attack had wounded 116 people.
--more--"
Let's let the cover stories flesh out a bit for the next day's paper:
Police and rescuers searched the rubble of a police building after a suicide attack yesterday in Lahore, Pakistan. A suspect was arrested (below). The government said it believes the building was targeted because of Pakistan's campaign against the Taliban. (Arif Ali/Afp/Getty Images)
All that from a CAR BOMB?
LAHORE, Pakistan - A suicide squad using guns, grenades, and a van packed with explosives targeted police and Pakistan's intelligence agency yesterday, killing 30 and wounding 250 in an assault seen as revenge for the month-old army campaign against the Taliban in the Swat Valley.
The midmorning blast on a crowded street damaged an area nearly as big as a city block, mangling cars, spraying bricks in all directions, and leaving behind a swimming pool-size crater. Most of the dead and injured were civilians. Interior Minister Rehman Malik said militants were striking out because they were losing the fight with government forces battling to uproot extremists in the valley and the tribal areas in the northwest near Afghanistan.
No matter what government or where (think U.S. in Iraq), it is always the same old bs!
A group calling itself Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab claimed responsibility for the bombing in a Turkish-language communiqué posted on Turkish jihadist websites yesterday, saying it was related to the fight in Swat, according to SITE Intelligence Group. The claim could not be verified and the group's relationship to the Taliban was unclear.
Related: SITE First on the Scene -- Again!'
SITE First on "Al-CIA-Duh" Sighting Again
And about the TTP, it's ALL "Al-CIA-Duh!"
Washington and other Western allies back the Swat campaign and are watching closely, seeing it as a test of the government's resolve to combat the spread of extremism in Pakistan.
They passing yet?
The attack in Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city, was far from the restive Afghan border region where the Taliban have established strongholds from which officials say they have launched attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan....
Oh, STINK!!!!!
Police and government officials described a coordinated assault on a compound that housed several government buildings, including a Punjab provincial government office, a police emergency call center and buildings housing the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI.
Oh, DOUBLE STINK!!!!!
Fifteen police and several intelligence agents were among the dead, officials said. The remainder of the dead and the bulk of the wounded were civilians caught in the blast or hit by shrapnel.
US officials and others in the past have accused the ISI of having links to militant groups, including the Taliban in Afghanistan."The U.S. government was well aware of the Taliban's reactionary program, yet it chose to back their rise to power in the mid-1990s. The creation of the Taliban was "actively encouraged by the ISI and the CIA," according to Selig Harrison, an expert on U.S. relations with Asia. "The United States encouraged Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to support the Taliban, certainly right up to their advance on Kabul," adds respected journalist Ahmed Rashid. When the Taliban took power, State Department spokesperson Glyn Davies said that he saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's plans to impose strict Islamic law, and Senator Hank Brown, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia, welcomed the new regime: "The good part of what has happened is that one of the factions at last seems capable of developing a new government in Afghanistan." "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis. There will be Aramco [the consortium of oil companies that controlled Saudi oil], pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that," said another U.S. diplomat in 1997."
But the secretive agency has also been responsible for capturing and interrogating senior Al Qaeda figures and collecting intelligence that helps the military's campaign against militants in the border region.
Sick of the S*** FOOLEYS, yet?
--more--"
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A recent surge in suicide attacks in Pakistan reached the capital yesterday when a man wearing an explosive-laden jacket attacked a police compound but was shot down before he could enter the main building. Two officers died and six other were wounded, police said.
U.S. is just going to have to get in there, 'eh?
The assault fit with a Taliban threat made 10 days earlier that militants would launch strikes in major cities across Pakistan in retaliation for the military's month-old offensive to oust the Taliban from the Swat Valley in the country's northwest. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred in the early evening at a police emergency response center in a residential neighborhood of Islamabad....
Stinking!
Earlier yesterday, militants ambushed a military convoy in a district near Swat, killing two detained aides of a senior cleric with close ties to the Taliban, the army said.
Now why would they do that? El-stinko!
The motive for the attack was not clear, though it could have been an attempt to rescue the prisoners or a bid to assassinate them before they could provide intelligence to the military about the Swat offensive.
Yeah, only they kill their witnesses!
Good thing America never rubs people out, 'eh?
"These two were being transported so that intelligence agencies could investigate them," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told reporters yesterday. "I wouldn't rule out that they were targeted or killed on purpose."
A roadside bomb and gunfire hit the convoy before dawn as it traveled from Sakhakot town near Swat to the main northwestern city of Peshawar, the army said. One soldier also died in the attack and five were wounded. The army identified the prisoners as Muhammad Maulana Alam and Ameer Izzat Khan, top aides to hard-line cleric Sufi Muhammad, who is the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah, the Taliban chief in Swat. Alam and Khan were detained in a raid near Swat on Thursday.
Sufi Muhammad negotiated a peace deal with the government that was widely seen as allowing the Taliban to take control of the valley. The deal collapsed earlier this year when the Taliban advanced into neighboring districts, triggering a military offensive that prompted retaliatory attacks by militants in the northwest and beyond.
Yeah, under U.S. PRESSURE!!!!!
Rasul Bahksh Rais, a political scientist at Lahore University, said the killings may have been deliberate to prevent Alam and Khan from giving the military information that could help find Taliban leaders. "I think it was a targeted killing by the militants because they could identify the whereabouts of some of the militant" leaders, Rais told a TV network.
The offensive in Swat is seen as a test of Pakistan's resolve to take on militants who have challenged the central government's rule by strengthening their influence in the border region with Afghanistan. More than 1,300 militants and 105 soldiers have died so far, Abbas said, but he conceded there were few senior Taliban leaders among the dead.
So it's been mostly civilian dead -- and 1,300 souls ain't enough, 'eh?
"They are the center of gravity of this movement, and unless and until they are killed, we cannot declare victory in this whole operation," he said. On Friday, a suicide attacker blew himself up inside a packed mosque in Haya Gai in a district near Swat, killing 33 people.
That just doesn't sound right to me.
--more--"
I doesn't matter who it is; it rips my heart out to see Pakistani women wailing.
The guy on the right isn't looking to good, either!
ISLAMABAD - Hundreds of Pakistani tribesmen furious over a deadly suicide bombing at a mosque laid siege to several Taliban strongholds in their troubled northwestern region, killing at least 11 militants, officials said yesterday.
The weekend clashes appeared to be the latest evidence of growing anti-Taliban sentiment in US-allied Pakistan, a shift that comes as suicide attacks have surged and the military wages an offensive in the nearby Swat Valley.
The attack on the mosque left 33 worshippers dead and wounded dozens more during Friday prayers, angering residents of the Haya Gai area of Upper Dir district who have had tensions and minor clashes with local militants for months. Some 400 villagers banded together to attack five villages in the nearby Dhok Darra area that were known militant strongholds, said Atif-ur-Rehman, the district coordination officer.
I'm wondering if this isn't the point: turn the Pashtuns against each other!
The citizens' militia has occupied three of the villages since Saturday and was trying to push the Taliban out of the other two yesterday. Some 20 houses suspected of harboring Taliban were destroyed, he said.
How come citizen militias are GOOD in Pakistan but BAD HERE, 'murkn?
At least 11 militants had died as of yesterday afternoon, district police Chief Ejaz Ahmad said. He said around 200 militants were putting up a tough fight but were surrounded by the villagers.
The government has encouraged local citizens to set up militias, known as lashkars, to oust Taliban fighters, especially in the regions that border Afghanistan where Al Qaeda and the Taliban have hide-outs. But villagers' willingness to do so has often hinged on confidence that authorities will back them up if necessary. With the army reporting advances against the Taliban in Swat - an operation that also reaches into Lower Dir district and has broad public support - that confidence appears to be growing.
Then we need not wory about Taliban coming back, huh?
Already, military officials say that as they've proceeded with the operation in Swat, local residents who have remained in the region have grown increasingly cooperative, providing tips on militants' hide-outs and more.
Then it should be over soon, right?
"It is something very positive that tribesmen are standing against the militants. It will discourage the miscreants," Rehman said.
You know, they are STILL HUMAN BEINGS!!!!
Dehumanizing them NEVER HELPS!
Ahmad, the police chief, said, "We will send security forces, maybe artillery too, if the villagers ask for a reinforcement."
Najmuddin Malik, a lawmaker from Upper Dir, said the militants fighting with villagers were from all over Pakistan, including Swat, but that most were foreigners. He said there was no need for army intervention yet. "People there have arms, small and big, and they are fighting on their own," Malik said.
The month-old Swat offensive, the latest round in a valley that has experienced fighting for two years, is seen as a test of Pakistan's resolve to take on Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters on its soil. The United States hopes the offensive will eliminate a potential sanctuary for militants implicated in attacks on Western forces across the border in Afghanistan.
Yeah, yeah, we got the point!
--more--"
